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SUNNYVALE, Calif. and NEW ORLEANS, La.— The Super Bowl is consistently the most-watched event of the year. The ability of the NFL to collect, access, protect, and share all the data generated at the game will play a pivotal role in event operations for Super Bowl XLVII. While millions around the world follow the action on the field, the NFL will work behind the scenes with NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP)—the official data storage provider of the NFL and Super Bowl XLVII—to provide continuous availability of critical game-day data.

“We are excited to team with NetApp to enhance our technology platform at the Super Bowl and beyond to help deliver the best experience for our fans, our broadcast partners, and the media,” said Michelle McKenna, NFL senior vice president and chief information officer. “As we look to work with companies that are leaders in technology, we are pleased to integrate NetApp® products and solutions across the League.”

Super Bowl XLVII kicks off a multiyear relationship between NetApp and the NFL, making NetApp the Official Data Storage Provider of the NFL, the Super Bowl, and all 32 NFL teams. The NFL will use the NetApp FAS2220 and FAS2240 storage systems to enable its support of the league-wide mission-critical activities.

“Our relationship with the NFL demonstrates the importance of data storage to key brands that can ill afford to take risks with their mission-critical operations,” said Amy Love, vice president of Brand and Communications at NetApp. “The NFL has to manage challenges similar to those of many enterprise businesses—reliability, data protection, agility, and efficiency. NetApp brings capabilities to the NFL that will help accelerate its business operations and drive success, because we do it every day for our customers.”

Data Availability Speeds Up Operations on Game Day

The NFL will extend a significant part of its day-to-day IT operations to the Mercedes-Benz Superdome and the city of New Orleans ahead of the game on February 3, 2013. Preparation of the host city typically takes 30 days of execution as the NFL IT team creates multiple data center sites. For the first time in Super Bowl history, NFL IT will build a shared data storage infrastructure to improve the agility and reliability of its game-day data.

The NetApp FAS2220 will be the foundation of the NFL’s shared data storage infrastructure and all three of its data center locations in New Orleans:

NFL Headquarters Hotel. The NetApp SnapMirror® solution will be part of the NFL’s Super Bowl XLVII main data center, located at the NFL headquarters hotel. The NFL IT team will use the NetApp SnapMirror solution to replicate data between its temporary data centers in New Orleans and its central data center in New York City. This will not only enable instant access to critical game-day data, but also help protect the data and give the NFL IT team the ability to recover it quickly as needed.

Super Bowl XLVII Media Center. NetApp storage will be critical in enabling the global communications activities for the Super Bowl. The NFL will establish another data center at the Super Bowl XLVII Media Center, housed at the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. The NFL Communications department will provide game statistics, player information, and various multimedia assets to the global media outlets covering the event. One key service the NFL IT team will provide is secure access to photographs and images of the event, improving efficiency for NFL photographers at Super Bowl XLVII, who used to have to save files on individual PCs and then manually upload them onto the servers.

Broadcast Compound. NetApp storage set up at the NFL Broadcast Compound will also help improve data distribution to broadcast partners on Super Bowl Sunday. The NFL Broadcast Compound houses camera crews, their technical equipment, and satellite uplinks, including for NFL.com and NFL Network. In the past, NFL IT would go through the extra step of compressing the raw data sent to the compound before it was delivered to its New York and LA offices during the game, a manual task with multiple pieces of equipment. Now, with the capacity and built-in compression capabilities of NetApp storage, the NFL IT team can make the raw data available to its media properties inside the stadium instantly, speeding up the workflow on game day.

To learn more about how NetApp's agile and reliable storage technologies have secured a position at The Big Game, read Jon Kelly's blog.

NetApp, the NetApp logo, Go further, faster, and SnapMirror are trademarks or registered trademarks of NetApp, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. All other brands or products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be treated as such.